Top U.S. banking and investment firm, Goldman Sachs, has agreed a deal to purchase NEOS Investments, a Connecticut firm that runs options-based income ETFs, in a cash-and-equity deal worth up to $2.25 billion. The transaction, announced Wednesday, deepens Goldman Sachs’ push into one of asset management’s fastest-growing corners and lands the firm among the ten largest managers of active ETFs.
$30 billion book of income ETFs changes ownership
NEOS Investments, founded in 2022 and runs out of Westport, Connecticut, oversees about $30 billion spread across 19 ETFs that use options strategies to generate income, according to figures from Goldman Sachs. Once the purchase is finalised, Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s ETF pile will hit about $130 billion, ranking the bank at eighth among active ETF managers.
Goldman has said the final consideration will hinge on NEOS hitting certain performance and service targets, so the headline number is a maximum attainable amount instead of a guaranteed payout. The deal is pending regulatory approval, and the two firms expect to complete the deal in the first quarter of 2027.
David Solomon, Goldman Sachs’ chairman and CEO, sees the purchase as a great fit with strategies the bank already sells. NEOS brings “a disciplined investment approach,” Solomon said in a statement, that he called “highly complementary” to Goldman’s work.
Derivative income ETFs now hold around $180 billion, and that category has compounded at greater than 70% a year since 2021, according to Goldman. Marc Nachmann, who is in charge of Goldman’s asset management arm, stated that the segment is “a fast-growing space in the asset-management business” with room to expand further.
Goldman Sachs ‘ second ETF deal in a year
Goldman Sachs had previously spent $2 billion on the acquisition of Innovator Capital Management, a specialist in defined-outcome funds, about twelve months ago. Goldman describes both acquisitions, in addition to its existing lineup, as pointing to an interest in a more expansive options-based ETF business.
The bank’s asset and wealth management unit supervised $4.04 trillion at the end of the second quarter and also booked $4.60 billion in revenue for the period, a figure up 20% from what it was a year earlier. The firm also reported about $4 trillion in assets under supervision as of June 30, 2026.
NEOS co-founders Troy Cates and Garrett Paolella are slated to become partners at Goldman Sachs Asset Management after the deal is completed, and the firm expects the rest of the NEOS team, including its investment and client-service staff, to move over alongside.
Goldman leaned on its own Global Banking & Markets desk for financial advice during the deal, with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Willkie Farr & Gallagher handling the legal aspects. NEOS also worked with Barclays as its exclusive financial adviser and Ropes & Gray as counsel, according to the statement.
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